Leading with Empathy

Chapter 6Enterprise Empathy

Do not second guess your team's how if you have clearly articulated the organization's why. Empower your teams and empathize with them as they create value.

As discussed in the previous chapters, empathy can be distilled into the ability to step into a person's shoes, to understand where they are coming from, and to understand their needs. Extending this to a workplace, empathy can be defined as the ability to step into someone's role, look at things from their point of view, and understand the rationale behind why they performed a particular action or had a particular ask from others in the organization. A workforce that does not feel safe, trusted, or cared for tends to suffer from stress and anxiety, impacting their productivity, innovation, and motivation. Empathy is, therefore, crucial in the workplace and it is critical for organizations to promote empathy and make it part of their organizational culture.

Empathy Improves Productivity

Whether you're a manager overseeing a team of employees, the president of your company, an employee in a large organization, or an independent contractor, one truth is persistent across the board. Every one of us has to work with others. We are all in a relationship of some kind and interact with other people every day.

Much of what we are used to experiencing in the workplace is a consistent push for greater productivity and throughput. Unrealistic deadlines stress us, the constant push for delivering faster ...